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Category : Places
Monday, January 25, 2010
Yoga
Yoga is wonderful isn't it? Well, I love it :) I thought I'd post this in case there are any other home educators, living within my general area who might be interested in this for their kids. Rosie and April both go and, it would seem, it's really good fun :)
There is a class running in Bournemouth and Rebecca (lady who runs the class!) will take children from 5 upwards - best of all it's a mixed age class which is absolutely brilliant if you are home educating and trying to find activities that all your kids can attend at once!
The basic details and contact information is here - ignore the fact that the page doesn't look like it's been updated for ages, the information is still relevant (except the cost of the class is now £4.00 per child not £3.50). Rebecca is really lovely and very helpful so do contact her if you might be interested :)
Monday, October 12, 2009
Many conkers!
It was a wonderfully sunny warm day today (Tim ALWAYS get's amazingly lucky with the weather on his days off) and, as I've got to spend the day decorating April's room tomorrow, we decided to go for a walk. We went into Christchurch because they have THE most brilliant conker trees near the priory carpark :)
First, we wandered down to the river to feed the ducks and there was some old man waffling on his mobile (very loudly!) ..... thought no more of it. A while later we went down to the harbour and there was the same old man again shouting into his mobile (by this time Tim and I were sniggering). We wandered around for a bit looking at boats and swans and stuff and then slowly made our way back to the carpark via the Priory churchyard. We got back to the carpark and guess what? The old man was there STILL bellowing into his phone! Of course, we now burst out laughing especially since his conversation included (honestly) "I'M JUST WALKING ALONG NOW!!!" and we were wondering if it was the same conversation. Tim said maybe he'd just got a mobile for the first time and was excitedly calling everyone he knew *laughs* His wife or whoever he was with looked a bit embarrased!
Anyway, we hunted around on the grassy bit in the middle of the carpark and found absolutely stacks of conkers :) I also got donked on the head by one falling from a tree which hurt a bit! We came home with a big bagful ..... beautiful colours!
We've stuck some of these on the window ledges to keep the spiders out (they hate them), some have gone on our nature table and the rest April is playing with and we're using for autumn maths manipulatives.
Rosie went to Guides tonight and came home with a leaflet about a 24 hour camp next year (not until August) - she's really excited!
Off to crash in front of the telly now .... wish me luck with the decorating - I've been known to drop entire tins of paint of the floor in the past .............
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
A parting of ways
I think my days of producing educational materials (at least for sale at any rate) have ended. Me and business just don't get on *laughs*. The problem is, as I put in a blog post a while back, I can't do my stuff as pdf any more because it gets stolen and fobbed off as being made by someone else. However, having attempted to try the other way recently (sellings as pre-printed) I can see that, that isn't necessarily going to work either as it just requires SO much of my time to produce and is incredibly expensive.
It's problematic as it was a handy source of extra income - ok, not a lot but certainly enough to mean that I could pay for the kids homeschool stuff myself (what I didn't make for them obviously!) rather than having to go to Tim for the money all the time which I LOATHED doing.
I'm not a particularly business-minded person anyway - at least not from the point of view of "being in charge" and I'm hopeless with the money side of it as I lose track too easily (a few months back I was doing incredibly well with sales but, rather embarrasingly, I've got nothing to show for it now). It's weird "shrugs", I was always a brilliant secretary - deeply organised, terribly efficient, could deal easily with accounts and whatnot - you'd THINK that would mean I could cope with running my own particular little show, but no. Obvisouly not! I'm better at "looking after" Mr Boss than being one myself I think!
This is not a cry-baby, self pitying thing, I'm just being realistic. It does leave me with a couple of quandries though - firstly, I'm not going to have any pennies any more! (that does want to make me cry if I'm honest!) and secondly, what on EARTH am I going to do with the folders and folders FULL of Montessori pdf stuff I have?!
Part of me wants to stick the whole lot in the recycle bin and hit delete but I'm not going to do that - too many years of hard work there!
I'm still going to do the free stuff because I like making things and it's fun. I'm not so bothered if those things get nicked .... not sure why, should bother me but it doesn't! Talking of which, I've been re-organising the Box.net account and added descriptions to things to make them easier to find. Will also be updating the materials page SOMETIME soon.
Anyway, what else today apart from my work-related decisions? Well, we've had HUGE amounts of birds flocking around our feeders! Not a minute goes past without someone shouting "hey! a robin ... or a blue tit .... or a nuthatch ... or a dunnock!" or whatever. Tim even noticed a rather cheeky dunnock perched on the tailgate of the car and peering in at us through the living room window! I had to go out in the rain today and refill all the feeders all the time being eyed up by a big fat pigeon who then attempted to get food out of the feeder hung on the washing line! Of course he was much too big and just ended up making an arse of himself before flying off looking rather crestfallen!
Finally, me and April have had a quiet afternoon as Tim took Rosie to her trampoline class and it was too rainy for the swing park. April, decided to have a little pretend tea party with her toys and I took a picture which I then played around with in Photoshop and gave it this rather nice drawing effect and put it in black and white - quite sweet I think :)
Friday, September 25, 2009
Ummm...
I have no suitable title today! This is just a mish-mash of different things from the last couple of days.
Today I've been really busy - I decided to remove EVERYTHING from our kitchen and completely clean it from top to bottom! You know how it is, it gets to a point where normal day-to-day cleaning isn't enough and you feel the need for something more thorough. So it's done and I'm a bit weary now!
Also been getting ready for Rosie's birthday - buying presents (and hiding them!) and whatnot. Her birthday is on Monday but Saturday evening we're going to Pizza Hut (her choice) for dinner - haven't been there for ages!
Anyway, here are a few bits and pieces from the last day or two:
Fangs!! Tim found a disgarded spider skin so we put it under the microscope for a closer look *shudders* It was only a tiny thing but look at the size of those under the scope!
A couple of pet pics - no idea why but I guess they're cute :)
Hemmy, very slightly giving the evil eye here (probably disturbed his snooze)
Jeff! This is a better picture than the one I first put of him when we first got him.
April is loving Starfall! Here she is using one of the computer games - it's a really great programme
It also comes with printable reading books and activity sheets. Today she did "d" and we cut out some pictures to stick on it - dragon, Dipsy, Dora and ducks!
April is also doing an Autumn lapbook - today she made a leaf man :)
Rosie did some work on her Japanese lapbook and made some origami. I love doing origami so I worked with her. Here are our efforts (hers first then mine) - a yacht, a pencil and a cat.
That's about it. Off now to peel Tim off the living room floor where he has been lying pretty much since he got home from work a while ago - got to have tea :)
Categories: Crafts, Homemaking, Homeschooling, Life, Pets, Places, Wildlife
Comments [ 1 ]
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Hey ho, hey ho
It's back to work we go - well, tomorrow anyway.
Yes, Tim's holiday is basically finished and tomorrow he goes back to work. As holidays go, it's been a bit lame - no exciting days out, no going away ...nothing apart from gardening and car hunting. Maybe sometimes "holidays" are like that, you use them as a time to get stuff done but I have to admit to feeling a little sorry for him (in particular him). Having 2 weeks off and then spending it all doing rubbish stuff is a bit not nice for him :( We really will have to make up for it next time!
He's already started to think ahead to his next holidays! This is not because he hates his job but because a) he needs to use up some days before the end of the year and b) because we are thinking ahead to "going away" next year. I'm very excited! Last year we went to Jersey, this year we didn't go away but next year we are going to (taa-daa!) Center Parc! Yes indeed, that slightly more upmarket Butlins!
There is a little story behind Center Parc. A few ago I first discovered the place, thought it looked amazing, and made some comment to Tim about going there on/round my 30th birthday. Well, of course, due to lack of funds we never went and I was a bit disappointed but made a joke that we'd go instead when I was 40 and he promised we would (whilst probably hoping I'd forget about it!) Next July I'm 40 and, naturally, I reminded Tim, half seriously, that he had a promise to honour - so he said "right, we'll go!", hopefully in June. NOTHING is going to stop us this time ..... NOTHING! I don't want to wait until I'm 50!
Although, what's to stop us going on the inbetween years I've no idea. Clearly some unwritten rule that decrees that, "thou shalt only go to Center Parc once a decade". Ahem.
So this year we went nowhere - this is partly due to keeping a very tight hold on the purse-strings although we probably could have done something cheap and cheerful. Tim's mum mentioned camping ........... "you can borrow our tent!", she said. Oh dear god. We've never been camping, Tim did as a little boy and said he really loved it but we never have. Reason? I'm SCARED. That's right, scared. I'm scared of getting bitten half to death by midgies. I'm scared of lack of decent hygiene facilities. I'm scared of the kids clambering out in the middle of the night and disappearing. I'm scared of being murdered to death in our sleep because there is nothing but a flimsy tent between us and the outside world and ANYONE could get in. I think, if I'm honest, this one and the kids getting out are my biggest fears. Tim, of course, laughs in my face and says "for heavens sake woman - you don't camp in a creepy field in the middle of nowhere!"
Thing is, I kind of like the idea of being that sort of "free" ..... maybe I might be persuaded but ONLY if Tim sleeps nearest the entrance in order to protect me from the CROWDS of maniacs outside. I'm SUCH a "girl" aren't I? *laughs*.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Silly goings-on of various kinds!
Had a quiet morning today and then, after lunch, popped out to do various things. First, went into Tim's work to pick up his wages (actually, FIRST, we got stuck in a quite alarming traffic jam near Bournemouth Airport!) - nothing interesting to see there (work) .... not that I thought there would be!
Next, we drove the short distance into Christchurch town centre and went for a walk along the river and fed the ducks. We also wanted to collect some river water in a jam jar for an ecosystems experiment Rosie is doing (as part of her ecosystems lapbook). In the end, I sent Tim off to do this because his arms are longer than mine and it was a bit of a stretch down into the water! Annoyingly he didn't fall in, in an amusing comedy fashion (oh, how we would have laughed!) and came back with a jar of what looked exactly like tap water - it was so clear! I'm not sure our experiment is going to work with it so we may have to go elsewhere for some slightly more inhabited pond water or something.
Anyway, after hoping my poor husband would fall into the water and give me a laugh, I was duly punished by falling down the steps leading from the ruined tower and promptly making a complete arse of myself *rolls eyes*. Note to self: don't "will" silly things to happen to Tim again! I'm going to blame the fact that I was wearing my high heeled boots (my favourite knee high boots!) for the first time since last winter and I've been wearing flat sandals all summer. Wasn't used to the heels .... ;)
Next stop after that was Sainsbury's at Castlepoint however, so bad was the traffic that we had to take a ridiculous route to get there and it took AGES! We eventually pulled into the car park and were listening to the radio and Tim (for some reason that I can't remember now) decided that the next song after the one we were listening to would be a Chas and Dave one. WHAT?! Chas and Dave! What on earth was he thinking?! Anyway, so there we were sat in the car for EVER while we waited for the song plus a load of adverts to finish so that he could find out if he was right.
He was wrong - it was Marillion. What can I say? His psychic powers were clearly having a day off.
Chas and Dave! .... I ask you!!!
PS - having just typed that last sentence, I can't help thinking what a WEIRD thing it is to say! "I ask you" ..... I mean, it's something people say without thinking about it but when you actually type it, it seems odd! I ask you what exactly? *laughs* What a strange mistress the English language is!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Poor April
Went round to Tim's mums tonight for dinner (we were supposed to be picking up Rosie at the same time but she's having a sleepover instead).
Anyway, the kids were down the garden playing and I decided to go down there and get April in because it was dark. About halfway down the garden is a fence and gate and I'd just got to that when I noticed the kids were coming the other way and April was sniffing a bit sadly (still not found out why that was). Rosie climbed over the gate, next was Luke (who, as usual, was completely out of control). Instead of climbing over the gate carefully (bearing in mind that April was right behind him), he LEAPT over it, swinging his legs out and KICKING her straight in the face and sending her flying backwards down the steps and onto the grass.
For a split second there was a horrible, sickening silence and I actually thought he'd knocked her out or something ... then she started crying. Meanwhile, I was frantically trying to get through the gate to get her only to find the stupid boy had PADLOCKED it!! Why for heavens sake?!
I was really angry about him being so careless and silly when he knew she was right behind him but, more than that, I was furious with m-i-l (and d-i-l!) because they did NOTHING (other than to say "oh I'm sure he didn't mean it". They didn't move out of their chairs, didn't get up to see if April was ok, didn't reprimand him in ANY way for being silly and over the top with a 4 year old child about.
On the way home in the car, Tim says "that's the problem, they were really too old to adopt him really and they just can't deal with him". That's the truth I'm afraid *sigh*. He's a demanding child with various issues and, although not his fault, he needs someone with more get up and go to deal with it. They just don't.
Thankfully, April appears fine - her bottom seems to have taken the brunt of it (luckily a very chubby bottom and so it acted as a shock absorber!) Her face doesn't appear to have any marks on it at all so I guess he must have caught the side of it rather than square on.
Poor child, that's the second time this week she's been whacked in the face!
Anyway, needless to say, we were pretty glad to get home! I cleaned up April to get her ready for bed and Tim was promptly dispatched to buy a bottle of Baileys!
.....no I haven't drunk the whole thing! Just one little measure ..... bliss!! :)
PS - now watching the last night of the Proms - can't believe it's the last night! That has gone really, really quick this year!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
*Yawn*
Yesterday I felt full of the joys of spring, today I feel a bit deflated and va-va-voomless .... can't think why .....
Oh well.
Tim's just taken Rosie off round to grandma's so that she can spend the day with Luke and when he get's back he's going to tackle some more of the gardening (bet he can't wait *laughs*) Not sure what I'm going to do - could do some work on some materials I'm making at the moment - could do some tidying and clean out the bunny cage (actually going to have to do that at some point today). Could spend MORE time looking for a car for Tim (this activity, for some reason, has fallen on my shoulders).
I'm beginning to be of the opinion that he has no choice but to buy one on finance (even if it's still a fairly old car) because we are just NOT finding anything decent within our price range - i.e the money we have saved up. If he DOES go down this route it will mean that ......
* He'll end up with a newer car than if he paid cash for one
* He'll have saved the money that he would have spent (but which would then, presumably, have to be put towards the monthly repayments)
HOWEVER ...
* We'll have to watch the pennies even more than we do now and ...
* He'll have to take every bit of overtime offered to him at work to help pay for it.
In other words, it's doable but a bind. Hmmm ......
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Naughty bunny!
Jeff-the-rabbit is very naughty - he keeps trying to eat the carpet! He's very lovely apart from that - I was slightly worried that an indoor rabbit would be smelly but, really, they're very clean and there's no smell at all! He hops about the floor looking cute - although Tim says he's a "ridiculous looking creature" which is very mean!
Anyway, we have a slight change of plan for tomorrow. Not going to Burley now as we simply have too much other stuff to do (so sorry Carolyn, I can't hug the donkeys for you *laughs*) will have to order my candles online instead.
Still going into Tim's work after lunch to pick up his wages but then, instead of Burley, we've got to go to Tesco because I have to exchange an outfit that I brought April the other day. The hanger said 5-6 but the age on the clothing was, in fact, 2-3! I suspect I missed this because of the fact that I was so wound up about the trolly-in-the-face incident.
After that, we've then got to stop off at the church so that Tim can pick up some music that he needs for the harvest festival he's doing.
Today was a glorious day - glad the weather is turning out so lovely for Tim's holiday! Got a fair bit of gardening done today and it's starting to look way better already. Still car hunting (unsuccessfully car hunting!) which is getting a bore now. Tim doesn't know much about car's and isn't a car person and I'm not remotely interested .... actually, I'm interested to a point but it's all very girly stuff as opposed to being based on performance or whatever. I like big cars (feel safer), and cars with a decent music system (ours in the Citroen is broken), and cars with a nice, plush interior (comfy) and black cars (can't explain this one!)
Off now to tidy up a bit, get the kids in bed (not long!) and make a chicken/brocoli pasta bake for dinner with Tim ..... I mean, I've got to join Tim in the making of, not that I'm going to bake him in the bake! I think you know what I mean!
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Cars and things
Well, I'd like to say that we've spent the first few days of Tim's holiday being massively productive and getting all our jobs out the way. Hmmmm ....... I'd like to say that.
Sadly, things have been a bit frustrating - we've wanted to get things done but other things keep getting in the way!
We've done a bit of tidying in the garden but there is loads more to do, I've not started anything that I wanted to do around the house yet (touching up the paintwork on a few windows, sorting out seasonal clothes etc) and (and this is the real nightmare), we've got nowhere with the car yet :(
Tim really wants to get this sorted before he goes back to work on the 24th partly because it just makes sense to try and do that but also because the MOT on our current one is due on the 2nd October so, clearly, we need to get another car before then!
He really isn't THAT bothered what sort of car it is - he's not a "car" person, he just wants something reliable and (if we're honest!) at least a year younger than what we've got now and big enough (he's tall and lanky!) We've shortlisted a few makes that are (going on AA and Which Car reports) particularly robust and reliable so now it's just a case of finding something.
To be truthful, he could do with an extra £200 or so to go on top of what he's already saved, just to give a little bit more choice. It's frustrating really, it's one of those times when it would be great to be able to go to his boss and ask for an advance of his wages and, say, pay it back out of any future overtime (which he does reasonably regularly) ....... do people still do advances on wages? I remember, years ago, that I did that a couple of times when I worked for the Bournemouth Echo - they were always quite obliging! Mind you, they were a wonderful organisation to work for full stop :) Anyway, I digress, the thing is with most companies working to tight budgets these days I'd imagine asking for an advance is probably not a good thing to do! I don't know ... I don't run a company and I'm not very well "up" on financial things so I don't know.
Anyway, other stuff ... Rosie's got her first trampoline class of the new school year this afternoon. Was thinking of going so that April could go in the swing park at the Littledown but the weather is a bit lousy and I (for some reason) am very chilly - I say for some reason because I don't think anyone else is! So I might not. Have to see!
Tomorrow we are DEFINATELY going to get on with some gardening!
Friday we're going out - we're going to stop off at Tim's work so he can pick his wages up and then going into Burley because I want to go here. No, I'm not going to buy a wand and turn everyone into frogs! I'm getting some beeswax candles - won't have parafin ones in the house any more and have not found anywhere else locally that does beeswax ones!
Right, going now - lunch soon :)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Big scarey plane!
We went for our walk up Hengistbury Head this afternoon - partly because we haven't been there for a long time and partly because it was the last day of the Bournemouth Airshow and we thought we'd get a good view of some planes - we were right!
I've got some piccies of the walk but first a VERY short video clip - the first bit showing a glider being towed by another plane and the second bit which we got JUST as we were about to get in the car to come home. I don't know what plane it was but it was loud and scarey! We would have had another BRILLIANT clip of something (again, don't know what sort of plane!) except, it was me that was supposed to get the video and I had a bit of a "WOMEN! Know your limits!" moment. Y'see, it happened really quick and Tim says "quick get that!", so I'm scrambling around with the camera, panicking because I want to catch it before it zooms off into the distance, started to video but then (somehow) switched the flipping thing off again and we ended up with about half a second of video of some empty sky! Brilliant. If Tim had done it that wouldn't have happened *rolls eyes*.
Anyway, here's what we did get :)
Here's a pic of the glider being towed and another of some bi-planes we saw - oh, and a photo of the big scarey plane! :
Now some general "walking about" photos. It was really hot and I started off with my hair down (how I prefer it) but, because of the heat I ended up putting it up (which I don't like much)
Lovely heather!
"I've got something in my shoe"
Big, blue dragonfly
Being silly!
Being sillier!
Clambering around in trees
Yum Yum! Ice lolly time
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Photo heavy!
The last couple of days (apart from going to the dentist where we found out all our teeth are lovely and not in any way holey) we have mostly:
Enjoyed the summery weather by painting pictures of bits of our garden (top to bottom - April's, mine (!) and Rosie's)
Counted - with apple tree game and Cuisenaire Rods
Studied decimals
Studied more about Japan - this time bento lunchboxes and made a paper bento to go in the lapbook
Notebooked maths
Learned the letter "a" with the lovely stuff from Starfall
Wrote friendly letters using a dinosaur penpal theme
... and played a game called appetising adjectives by using a menu from our local Indian takeaway (yes, really!)
We picked blackberries in our own back garden ....
... and I digital scrapbooked this (for no good reason that I can think of)
I think that's about it ...... *laughs*
Tomorrow, we're (hopefully) going to stretch our legs with a walk on Hengistbury Head where we haven't been for aaaages!
Categories: Crafts, Homeschooling, Places, Seasonal
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Summer fruit picking
Oh! gorgeous weather today!
After lunch we decided to go to Sopley and pick some raspberries (and what was left of the strawberries) - just seemed like the "right" thing to do on such a beautiful afternoon. So hard was the sun beating down that me and the kids wore sunhats (poor old Tim probably has a burned head by now) and we all put on LOADS of suncream and wore not much :) We came home with a big box of raspberries and another of yummy strawberries.
Here are a few summertime-berry-picking pictures - the more observant will notice a) that one of the pics of me has been used to replace one in my blog banner (Tim made me do it!) b) there are no pics of Tim (wasn't allowed to because, apparently, he looks "tired and yuk") and c) there are no berries in April's box - she ate them ALL!
Not sure what Rosie's looking for in this picture!
Yuuuummy! (and no, she hasn't wet herself! She ran through a sprinkler they had going!)
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
On clutter
I'm a clutter hater - I can't stand tonnes of pictures on the walls, vases of flowers everywhere, pictures on every sideboard. They collect dust and make the place feel claustrophobic. That said, I do have a few things dotted about - one of our wedding pictures in a lovely frame, a sparkly crystal that Rosie got me for Christmas and some gorgeous candlesticks (also a Christmas present - from my mother in law). The candlesticks, I'm sad to say, have been ignored for ages - stuck on the top of our fridge/freezer along with about as much "stuff" as it was possible to get up there.
This little spot, for some reason, always gets overlooked in my tidy-ups - sometimes for weeks and weeks and weeks on end - no idea why. The rest of the house can be spotless but this area stays awful *embarrased blush*. So today, I braced myself, and waded in. I realised that the main culprit for the mess up there is none other than my lovely hubby - loose change, sunglasses, car keys, bank receipts, credit card, combs and wage slips. Oh my god ... the wage slips! They dated back to MAY and they were all jumbled up. In an attempt to help (force) him to be tidy, I found a nice box for all his bits and pieces - all he has to do is shove stuff in there instead of just plonking it on the fridge top. As for the payslips - well, the past-life-as-secretary in me came soaring to the surface and I spent ages going through them all, putting them in date order and filing them away.
Then, I could retrieve my beautiful candlesticks, dust them off and put them by the kids nature table. I even lit a couple of vanilla scented candles which is what greeted Tim when he got home from work :)
Also been busy over the last couple of days making "things". Made some gingerbread men (well, ladies, I couldn't find the man shaped cutter) and ginger biscuits. The kids iced faces on them - very nice :)
I also did some maths notebook/lapbook things - we get bored of workbooks all the time so we make little lapbook type pages occasionally. I made one for Rosie on converting decimals to fractions - I used Open Office for this one but I'm divided as to whether it's better than Word. Word is more user friendly (Open Office actually confused me senseless the first time I tried it but I've got used to it now) - Open Office has more features and a better drawing facility. I tend to swap between the 2 depending on what I'm doing.
Here's the finished decimals booklet (obviously, not stuck down because Rosie hasn't done it yet) - cute no? ;)
Tim is really busy at work this week - another 6 days of overtime. Yesterday, he had to take some new guy out to show him a route and he (Tim) said that the bloke's breath smelled horrid! He said he had to virtually drive around with his head stuck out of the side window of the van *laughs* I believe Tim is sometimes guilty of being a bit garlicky depending on what we've had for dinner the night before but at least that is garlic (and he is permanently chewing gum "just in case") and not ... well... god knows!
Thursday, I believe, the Air Show is starting (there has been a Red Arrow parked by the side of a roundabout in Bournemouth for the last couple weeks). Tim is concerned about how busy it's going to be because, in the past, he's ended up stuck in traffic for EVER. Hopefully, Thursday won't be too bad for him because he's finishing at lunchtime - we've all got to go to the dentist in the afternoon. Hmmm, lesser of the two evils I think - air show induced traffic jams or a visit to the dentist? Unfortunately, we can't avoid Mr Yilmaz and his implements of torture for more than 6 months at a time so the dentist it is.
Categories: Cooking, Homemaking, Homeschooling, Places
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Lulworth Castle
Went to Lulworth Castle today for the Medieval jousting. Great fun (loved the jousting) but can't blog much because I had too much sun and feel a bit yuk :( Pictures and vid mostly (listen out for me laughing my head off when the "bad knight" chases another knight and pokes his bum with his lance - really funny.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Compton Acres
We finally went! The weather was absolutely perfect today and we had the MOST gorgeous walk around these lovely, tranquil gardens - I could have quite happily stayed there forever :) There is such a lovely variety from pristine Italian gardens to wild, woody walks. We "did" most of it and then stopped for tea at a cafe at the top (with a lovely view out over Brownsea Island) and then finished up with the heather gardens and (my favourite!) the Japanese garden - got some lovely photos of the tea house and some statues for the kids lapbooks!
Anyway, here are some pictures and a short video - oh and look out for the very jolly country dancing that was going on (not that you can miss it - it's right at the start!) Also, try and ignore the rather dippy picture with me in it - only included it because Rosie looks quite cute! My hair does not look good all pulled back but it was very hot!
Monday, August 03, 2009
Woohoo!
It got sunny today! How exciting is that?!
Went to Staples this morning and brought a usb cable so that we could connect our new printer (it didn't come with one and then one we already had didn't fit!) Whilst there, I had a look at staplers. Now, I wanted a long-arm stapler so that we could use it to make little books (instead of me having to actually sew the pages together which takes AGES). I completely failed in my mission though because they were over £20 and, much as I want one, I'd feel guilty about spending that much on a stapler :(
Anyway, came home for lunch and then, on impulse, decided to go to Avon Heath as it was such a beautiful afternoon. Lots of other people had the same idea as the place was pretty packed! The kids played on the climbing stuff for a while and then we went for a walk through the woods before heading back to play in the visitor centre for a bit. Lovely afternoon - gorgeous to feel the sun on my skin!
Oh, and this morning I wacked my little toe on April's scooter (serves me right for going outside with no shoes on) and TOTALLY ripped my toenail back to the base. I'm trying not to think about it. *Feels sick*
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
NOT what I was going to blog about
I did have an interesting, informative and important blog post lined up about scoliosis (which I have and, frankly, it's horrid and crap), and the looking-out-for-symptoms of in your child (which is important because it can be easy to miss until it's too late). However, I'm not in the mood to write this at the moment because my head is a bit all over the place - I'm unsettled. The scoliosis thing (including picture of my own, admittedly mildly, wonky spine!) will have to wait until another day.
Right now, I give you this .... made me chuckle and kind of appropriate today I think given a request that Tim got :)
Tim is doing his BIIIG week at work this week. Every day. 5.00 a.m until .... whenever (it varies). Today, he found out that one of the other drivers is leaving in September and Richard (his boss) asked Tim if he'd like to take on some extra hours on a more permanent basis. This is not an unreasonable request but is quite tricky for Tim to agree to because he actually does "other stuff" on occasions. Thing is, I guess, he might feel a little awkward at saying "no" to Richard buuut I honestly think Tim part time is (with occasional excursions into full-time as this week) better than Tim full time permanently. I think they get his best side this way. Why? Because he'd get irritatedly bored if he was doing the same thing day in day out FULL TIME. His job is a bit mundane and repetitive and I simply cannot imagine him being very happy doing more hours - perhaps if there was some more variety in it maybe ..... Flitting about, as he does, doing different stuff gives him variety in his day to day life and he's a happy bunny and can, consequently, do his main job fairly cheerfully. Anyway, I hope Richard doesn't just think he's a lazy bum-hole!!
Talking of lazy bum-holes, I've been one today I'm sorry to say. I woke up feeling sick, no idea why, just felt cruddy, and this kinda wrecked the rest of the day. I was in no mood to do anything. Actually, I think the weather isn't helping here - I'm about to go damn mad if this rain goes on much longer! I spent the last two days ignoring the weather and just getting on with it (got a lot done too!) but today I gave in and was gloomy old Eeyore.
Will pull myself together by tomorrow and get on with - other people have to!
Categories: Homemaking, Homeschooling, Life, Places
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Monday, July 20, 2009
Must .... exercise!
Off out to Castlepoint in a bit .... going to buy myself an mp3 player in the hope that it might actually get me doing my exercise (I've got a mini trampoline that, frankly, rarely sees the light of day). So, I'm doing myself a favour, spending some of my birthday money and, hopefully, going to get a bit fitter. Hmmm.
Still no sign of us getting to Compton Acres (for my birthday outing!) any time soon. We're forecast rain for the rest of the week and, next week, Tim is working EVERY day (6 days of 4 o'clock starts - bleeeurrgh!) so no way we're getting out then. At this rate I'll be going for Halloween or something *sulk, sulk*.
Right, off now to have lunch and then get ready to go out .... later I've got some stuff to upload to the materials page so if you like/need home ed stuff you can go have a look :)
Added later - got myself an iPod Shuffle in bright pink ... the cutest thing ever :)
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Birfday all finished now
My birthday seemed to go on for an inordinately long period of time this year - lasting, as it did, several days! Apart from Wednesday (my actual day), Friday my brother came over with a card and birthday pennies and then Tim and I had our (absolutely yummy) dinner on Friday night along with watching the Proms (didn't Stephen Fry look incredibly slim!!). Then, yesterday evening, we went to mil's for her birthday dinner for me - curry this time and French apple tart afterwards (which I requested as it's one of my favourites). I was very lucky and got more cards and more present money (oooo! shopping!) The kids spent most of the evening out in the garden with Uncle Rob and the rest of us chatted about "stuff" (you know how these things are!). Tim and I didn't play the piano this time - I forgot to mention this - a few days ago we went over there for Luke's birthday and Tim taught me to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (no small feat as I'm a musical blank sheet!). It was a bit lame really and I only played with one hand but he "filled in" the other bits and in the end we made beautiful music together *smiles* Think we must have driven everyone else mad though because I kept going wrong and having to start again!
Anyway, last night we didn't get home until nearly 10 which is VERY late for April and the poor little thing was saying she was cold and tired aaaaah!
On another note, I'm still considering the drama society thing ... seriously considering it (just think it might be soooo much fun) - they let you take part in a one off show if you want before sort of committing yourself to any more. Problem is, rehersals are on a Monday evening and I'm worried that they might clash with any activities the kids are doing (NOT that I've actually finalised WHAT activities the kids are going to do yet - too many to choose from and not enough days!)
Right, off now, time for lunch :) Was going to go to Compton Acres today but it's not very nice out and waaay too windy - going to go the first sunny day we get.
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